


Holtz Used Chocolate; It's Super Effective!

by Shane_for_Wax



Series: Holtzmann the ADHD Engineer [10]
Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Menstruation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 12:09:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8101882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shane_for_Wax/pseuds/Shane_for_Wax
Summary: Patty has really bad PMS, Holtz basically hasn't had a period in three years since she got on birth control for an (medical) issue. Holtz still sympathizes and does her best to help. Her best.  Sometimes ADHD helps you think outside the box. Set after "Sometimes You Have to Admit Defeat" and "What Happens When Heroes Meet Their Fans".





	

Irony abounded when you were a Ghostbuster apparently. In Patty's case it meant she generally was out of commission to help anyone-- even herself-- when Aunt Flo came to visit. She had thought about seeing a gynecologist or something but at the same time was very hesitant to do so. But, after Holtzmann had been hospitalized, Patty was seriously considering it again. What if one of the others got hurt but then Patty had her Aunt Flo visit which prevented her from taking care of the people she loved most outside of biological family?

At the moment she wasn't thinking about any of that, though. Instead she was thinking about where she had last left her heating pad and her favorite tea. 

She had just about given up on the former and was about to fix the latter when she heard a knock on the door, well, _knocks_ , which meant only one thing: Holtzmann was here. With a grimace, Patty shuffled her way to the door then opened it for the blonde who was currently carrying something in her arms. Immediately Holtzmann rushed in, closed the door behind her, then gently guided Patty back to the couch. It was there that Holtzmann upended the paper bag she had been holding, revealing a small fortune in chocolate and small half pints of ice cream, all of which landed on Patty's lap or bounced off and onto the floor.

"Holtz, what--?" Patty started to ask, slightly dumbfounded but at least she could ignore the cramping if only for a minute or two. Holtz picked up one of the chocolate bars and tossed it gently at Patty's cramping abdomen. 

"Die, period! Holtz is here with endorphin backup!" the blonde said sternly, which only made Patty laugh despite herself.

"Did you really come all the way to my apartment to make that joke?" Patty asked, picking up the tossed chocolate bar and was unsurprised to find it was her favorite non-Hershey brand. Of course Holtzmann knew what brand of chocolate Patty liked.

"Of course not, my silly Patty Cake! I came to take care of you!" Holtzmann chirped with a big smile that almost threatened to break her face. "I mean, I may not be put out of commission for three days each month anymore but I still know what it was like..." 

Patty's brows rose slightly at what Holtzmann had admitted to. 

"You're fucking with me, you were one of the lucky ones to only have three days of this crap?" the taller woman asked, unpeeling the foil from the chocolate almost absent mindedly.

Holtzmann actually paused a moment when she realized she had just revealed that little fact. "Yeahhhh, I guess I was. But then my good friend BC put a stop to it entirely."

Patty frowned, _BC? BC... oh right, birth control._

"Lucky duck," she teased gently.

She took a bite of the chocolate while Holtzmann gathered up the ice cream and put it all back into the bag. She carried it all into Patty's tiny kitchen and put it into the equally tiny freezer. When she returned to the couch, Patty had wolfed down half of the chocolate bar.

"Where's your heatin' pad, Pat Pat?" Holtzmann asked after cocking her head slightly in thought. 

"Not a damned clue," Patty admitted around another bite of chocolate. She gestured around the apartment which was filled almost floor to ceiling with the books she couldn't store at the firehouse. "Maybe Tolstoy will know." 

Holtzmann looked around herself as sneakily as possible.

"You have the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy haunting your apartment?!" the blonde asked in a stage whisper, eyes widening comically. 

Patty laughed so abruptly she almost inhaled the chocolate the wrong way. 

"No, you goof! I meant it's probably near my Tolstoy collection. I just hadn't checked that part of the apartment yet!" Patty managed to get out through wheezing laughter which did nothing to help her cramps but she would rather hurt from laughing than because her body was mad about the lack of babies. 

"Oh, right, of course. I knew that," Holtzmann said almost in a single breath. She kissed Patty's cheek before wandering through the apartment, looking high and low for the elusive heating pad. 

She was about to give up and make Patty some of her favorite tea instead but then she caught sight of a familiar blue cloth that belonged to none other than the heating pad. It was pinned by a couple giant books. Holtzmann picked up the _History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ from atop the pad then wandered back to the couch, holding the pad aloft in triumph like Link in the Legend of Zelda or Rafiki in the Lion KIng. "Got it! Gibbon had it, not Tolstoy. That dog! He'll hang for it!"

Patty chuckled a little as Holtz quickly plugged the pad in then handed it off to the other woman. Patty gratefully took it and placed it across her aching abdomen. 

"Thanks, baby," she said with a relieved and much more content smile. 

"That's what I'm here for my darling Patricia!" Holtzmann said proudly. Patty certainly wasn't going to complain about Holtzmann babying her a little. Holtz just wanted to help and it was pretty cute. "Can I get you anything else?"

"Just you," Patty said before she could stop herself. Before she could try to correct herself, though, Holtz had dived onto the couch and cuddled up to the woman. 

"You already got me!" Holtz said. It was then that Patty noticed Holtz was sans glasses. That was different. But she wasn't going to complain, it was nice seeing those baby blues unobstructed. Before she could stop herself--again-- Patty leaned in to kiss Holtzmann's brow and then her cheek. She was about to pull away when Holtz grasped the back of her neck and kept her in place to kiss the woman right on the mouth. When they pulled away, Holtzmann had a goofy little smile on her face. Patty then returned the kiss gently before Holtzmann started climbing to her feet.

"You need tea!" Holtz said. Before Patty could deny that she needed anything except Holtz, the engineer had disappeared back into Patty's tiny kitchen. It took a few minutes until she returned, bearing a fresh mug of tea. It was in Patty's favorite mug too: a collector's mug from the Smithsonian that was personalized with her name.

 _Well, Tolan, who knows how you managed to snag her but, girl, you better not lose her,_ Patty thought to herself when she noticed the tea had the right amount of milk and sugar too.

Holtzmann was watching her intently, as if afraid she had messed up making the tea or something. 

"This is perfect, Holtzy, thank you," Patty said when she noticed the attention, making Holtz smile again. 

"Oh! I'll be back in like fifteen minutes!" Holtz said as she suddenly sprang to her feet and nearly made Patty spill her tea in the process. Confused, she looked up at the engineer. "I promise, I'm just going down the street then I'll be right back. You have your paddy pad and your tea you should be fine for fifteen minutes right?"

"Uh, yeah, of course Holtz. I can take care of myself for fifteen minutes you weirdo," Patty said, snorting softly. She took a sip of her tea to prove the point. Satisfied, Holtzmann vacated the premises. 

Patty really didn't have any reason to doubt Holtz, to be honest. And with the heating pad on her abdomen and tea in her stomach, she felt a lot better than she had when she had woken up to realize Flo had come to visit unexpectedly. Though she did start to worry after ten minutes had passed. 

Almost exactly fifteen minutes after Holtzmann had left though, she returned. Patty smelled the flowers before she saw them. Her heart suddenly sank when she caught sight of the bouquet Holtzmann held.

Holtzmann noticed the look and something akin to panic crossed her face.

"Oh my Curie, you aren't allergic are you?!" Holtz asked, staring at the bouquet herself then looked back at Patty. 

Some of the flowers were the rich purple anemone. Others were of the beautiful blue hydrangea. But there were also red and white roses. All in all, those flowers together sent the most mixed signals ever. 

"I-I know your favorite colors are purple and blue and then I saw these perfect red and white roses and red and blue make purple and then the white ties everything together and--" Holtz was in full on panic mode by that point, completely distraught that she had gotten the wrong thing even though she didn't know why they were wrong.

"Holtzy, calm down, baby. It's okay. It's just... some flowers have meanings," Patty cut in, reaching a hand out to grasp Holtz by the wrist and tug her onto the couch. 

"I... they do? I thought they were just pretty and smelled good..." Holtz had one of her adorable frowns on her face. "Oh, no, do the blue ones mean I don't like you or something?!"

Holtz was the most brilliant person Patty had ever met, and also managed to be a little naive and clueless when it came to social and interpersonal things. It was cute though so Patty could hardly be mad. And she knew part of it had to do with Holtzmann being neurodivergent in the way that she was. 

"Yeahhh... kinda, Holtzy. But it's okay! See the anemones--" she pointed them out in the bouquet "--means fading hope. The blue ones, the hydrangeas, can mean heartlessness. But then you also have the white and red roses which can mean unity."

"So they cancel each other out though right?" Holtzmann asked, still anxious. "And you aren't allergic?"

"Not really and no. But it's okay, Holtzy! Really, baby. I love them. They are my favorite colors," Patty said, taking the bouquet from the distraught engineer.

Holtzmann had her lower lip poking out by that point. She had messed up, and also now knew why the florist had looked at her funny when she had asked for those flowers in particular to be put together in one bouquet. 

"I'm so sorry, Patty. I didn't want to be cliche and just get roses and--"

Patty stopped another babbling word vomit with a firm kiss. Her mouth crashing against Holtz's pouting one stopped the stream of words and managed to relax the engineer too.

"Holtzy? I love you." 

"You do?" 

"Of course, you dolt! And I love the flowers, okay? You tried and that is what matters, baby." 

Holtzmann still had a bit of a frown on her face but she also looked a lot more relieved than she had a moment ago. 

"There's a vase under the sink." 

With a grin, Holtz popped up to go get it. She filled it with the right amount of water before presenting it to Patty who put the flowers in it. Patty, smiling herself, put the vase on the little end table next to her couch. Without wasting another second, Holtzmann perched herself on the couch next to Patty again. Patty picked up her tea, taking a small sip of it.

They didn't stay like that for long as soon Patty had to take a trip to the bathroom. When she returned, Holtzmann had made herself right at home: stretched out on the couch with her booted feet up on Patty's coffee table that was covered in books and magazines. Holtzmann had been playing with the discarded chocolate bar wrapper that Patty had left behind but stopped when Patty came back. 

"Welcome back, Pat," Holtzmann said, and actually patted one thigh. "Got a warm pillow for you if you want." 

Patty tried to fight back a laugh but lost. So instead she stretched out on the couch the best she could despite her height. She put her head in Holtzmann's lap as the engineer wanted. Holtz put the heating pad back into place on Patty's abdomen. 

"Holtzy?"

"Yeah, Patty Cake?"

"Thank you. And I love you. I mean it." 

Holtzmann looked down at her with blue eyes that almost seemed to give off their own light. One of the biggest smiles Patty had ever seen graced Holtzmann's face. 

"I love you too, Patty. Thanks for letting me pamper you."

"Thanks for doing the pampering in the first place. Not a lot of people do..." 

Any other person it might feel weird to thank for pampering her, for babying her. But this was Holtz. Holtz meant well, eager to please and help. 

"Don't worry, I'll pamper you the next two days, too."

"Four."

"...Four?"

"Four."

"Oh, damn. I'll have to go all out the rest of the week then!" 

They both wound up laughing, even though for Patty it still hurt. It was a good hurt, though. A good hurt because she had finally found a good person to love and who loved her in return. If they hadn't lost it in the Fourth Cataclysm, Patty might have actually thanked the ghost that had been in the subway and had been the whole reason Patty had left her job with the MTA to become a Ghostbuster. Hell, she might've gone further and thanked Rowan too if he hadn't been banished to the other plane, too.

She took Holtz's hand then kissed the knuckles gently. She kept her grip as she slowly drifted off, catching up on sleep that had been interrupted when Dear Auntie had arrived early that morning, like most of New York had still been asleep early morning.

She knew she was in good hands and would be for the next four days. She just hoped her mood swings wouldn't scare Holtzmann away (though she severely doubted they would). 

Meanwhile Holtzmann was just happy to spend time with her girlfriend and be able to repay all the times Patty had taken care of her.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know I just really liked the idea that even though Holtz isn't sexually active with penis-havers she is still on birth control for other medical things. Which makes her perfect for comforting her friends/girlfriends during theirs. Also Holtz was originally going to say 'oh my Hawking' but I thought 'oh my Curie' was a lot better given Marie Curie is the mother of radioactive science. 
> 
> Also I used two different sites for the flower meanings but ADHD prevented me from double checking the veracity beyond that.
> 
> Oh and I'm weirdly proud of the fact this fic has the most words in it out of all of my Toltzmann fics for my ADHD series (my supernatural creature au has more). :) Thank y'all for the support! I am always accepting prompts and such @ jacenolodjo on tumblr.


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